Arvo Part

Par PART ARVO. This piece is Pärt's tribute to Benjamin Britten who died in 1976. Arvo Pärt: In the past years we have had many losses in the world of music to mourn. Why did the date of Benjamin Britten's death - 4 December 1976 - touch such a chord in me? During this time I was obviously at the point where I could recognize the magnitude of such a loss. Inexplicable feelings of guilt, more than that even, arose in me. I had just discovered Britten for myself. Just before his death I began to appreciate the unusual purity of his music - I had had the impression of the same kind of purity in the ballads of Guillaume de Machaut. And besides, for a long time I had wanted to meet Britten personally - and now it would not come to that. 'The last chord of Cantus is seemingly never-ending. It just stands there, neither growing nor decaying. Something has been achieved and it shouldn't be given up. The content of the whole work leads up to this point.' Nora Pärt/ Répertoire / Orchestre à Cordes et Cloche

Par PART ARVO. Arvo Pärt wrote the prayer of peace Da pacem Domine to fulfil a commission from Jordi Savall. He began to set this ninth-century Gregorian antiphon two days after the Madrid bombings on 11 March 2004 as his personal tribute to the victims. Since then Da pacem Domine has been performed every year in Spain to commemorate the victims of this terrorist attack. Even while originally composing this four-voice piece, Pärt made allowances for variable scorings. As a result, it exists in several versions, not only for voice but also entirely for instruments. Wolfgang Sandner Da pacem Domine in diebus nostris quia non est alius qui pugnet pro nobis nisi tu Deus noster./ Répertoire / Orchestre à Cordes